BY GUEST BLOGGER, ANNE WAVERLY SPENCER, ARTIST: #MathMonday through the Artist’s Eye:

Skills Encouraged With This Activity: Counting (1-5) and Color Recognition!

​While walking through your backyard, neighborhood, or local park, look for flowers with different colors or numbers of petals. Along the way, ask your child to count how many petals are on the flowers, or how many points are on the leaves. Also, encourage your child to describe what color each flower or leaf is.

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How many points does each leaf have? What colors are the leaves?

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​How many petals does each flower have? What color is each flower?
As the children explore nature, you can explain to them how the flowers grow and get their beautiful colors. Just like humans, plants need food AND water to grow. But how? Photosynthesis! (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/photosynthesis)
Just like how humans cook each meal, plants make their own food too. Plants need water, carbon dioxide (CO2), and light to make their food.

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Next, look at a picture of a flower or an actual flower and use either Cheerios or thumb prints to create the flower petals while your child counts them out loud. Then add the stems.
 
Feel free to draw more stems or draw more petals when the children can work up to 10!

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​Not only is this exercise fun, but it allows your little ones to be creative while learning about the variety of colors and shapes in nature along with photosynthesis (the process of how plants make food).  ​

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